For Immediate Release
March 23, 2011

Kay O’Neill Named Director of Workforce Development at Cañada

O’Neill previously worked as manager of San Mateo County’s Green Jobs Program.

The manager of San Mateo County’s highly successful Green Jobs Program has been named the Director of Workforce Development at Cañada. Kay O’Neill started at the college earlier this month and is already targeting national grants to help fund new programs.

“Cañada is uniquely positioned to develop 21st Century workforce skills for the residents of San Mateo County,” she said. “It goes far beyond teaching students the content associated with their workforce training. To be successful, they need to be persuasive communicators and to do that they must have the critical thinking skills associated with a solid liberal arts education.”

For the past six years, O’Neill has worked in environmental leadership, economic development, and green workforce development. Prior to working for the county, she was a consultant bringing private and public stakeholders together to build green collar job networks. She convened two Green Collar Job Summits, bringing county resources to stakeholders, including green businesses, community colleges, community based organizations and government agencies.

O’Neill cites Van Jones, a leading environmental advocate and civil rights activist, “as an inspiration and catalyst for my involvement in green workforce development,” she said. Jones was appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs by President Barak Obama after publishing his bestselling book The Green Collar Economy, How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.

O’Neill said she hopes to work closely with faculty and support their workforce ideas through grant development and by engaging businesses to see Cañada as a source of talented interns and employees of the next economy. “I’m confident we can build programs at Cañada that will allow students to see beyond the basic education they need to enter the workforce--to see themselves as entrepreneurs and change agents in future careers they want in the emerging green economy.”

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340